Well-known photographer Nev Schulman recently took the Nokia Lumia 1020 on the highways of the United States to put the phone through its paces and capture a vision of America.

The artist hit the road for a two-week period and used the Lumia 1020 to take photos in Idaho, New Jersey, Arizona, Illinois, California and New York. He photographed shop owners, business people and other people he met along the way when capturing the stunning images that can be seen below.

The Nokia Lumia 1020, with its manual controls and 41-megapixel sensor was the perfect tool for the job, reports Nev, because it puts DSLR-like controls in the palm of your hand. With the Lumia 1020, any budding photographer can learn and create amazing photos.

We caught up with Nev and asked him to show us three of the photos he shot and explain how these stunning images came to life.

Nev: Since the setting for this photo was not well lit, I put both the objects in the foreground and the subject in the background under the only two light sources I could find. Of course I wanted to feature the details of the items while also showing off the uniqueness of the space, so I put them as far from each other as I could while still being able to see them both.

Nev: Figuring out how to capture both the cityscape, artwork, and character of Priscila in this photo took some time. I knew the angle had to be right for the reflection in the sculpture, and that I had to be far enough away from it to see its shape too. Positioning Priscila was the last thing I did and I had her face in the direction of the sun to best illuminate her. Exposing for this was tough so I decided to let the sky blow out in order to capture the detail of all the people in and around the sculpture. Of course, I also had to make sure I wasn’t in the photo by having her between me and the reflective surface of the sculpture.

I think I took 30 versions of this shot before I got it right. Of course, exposure is really important with silhouette shots and for this I wanted to make sure that the skyline and sun rays were properly exposed. Once I had the exposure set, it was all about framing this to show off the location and tell a story about a beautiful romantic day at the beach.

To close, we asked for the one tip he’d give to budding mobile photographers?

Nev: Take yourself seriously, and so will everyone else. If you want to take a photo of somebody or capture an event, have the confidence to ask and be comfortable calling yourself a photographer.

Thanks to Nev Schulman for sharing his time and these amazing photos with us. To view the entire photoset, see the Flickr link.